MIRI: The Ministry of Education should establish more sports schools for Sarawak in order to bring back the glory of the state as a sports power house in the country.
Assistant Minister of Sports Datuk Lee Kim Shin proposed this when officiating at SMK Lutong’s 46th Athletic Championship at Miri Stadium yesterday.
“More sports schools should be established in the state to realise our dream of producing quality athletes in various sports,” he said.
Thus far, he said, Sarawak only has one sports school which is located in Kuching and this was not able to cater to the many students with potentials throughout the state.
He said further the state government has made allocations for sports infrastructure and incentives to uplift the state’s sport development to be on par with international standards.
Thus, various programmes related to sports development had been conducted especially for schools, he said, adding that this was vital to establish a strong foundation for young potentials.
All these efforts are in line with the objective of building a pool of young talents to groom them into future successful athletes, Lee said.
At the same time, Lee called for parents to support the ‘One Student, One Sport’ policy implemented by Ministry of Education.
“Parents must give their children total support by encouraging them to participate actively in sports. Only with that, it will help to develop the students both mentally and physically,” he urged.
Meanwhile, more than 2,000 students took part in the two-day championship which started yesterday.
A total of seven new records have been set during the first day.
Also present were president of SMK Lutong Alumni Albert Bangau and senior assistant of academics and administration Anita Yi Fuan Mi representing the school principal.